Weddings Get Intimate in the Age of Covid-19

Big weddings may be a thing of the past as matrimonies evolve in the age of Covid-19.

Typically, weddings in Pakistan are a large affair with some couples having as many as thousand guests.

But the coronavirus pandemic has meant wedding celebrations have had to downsize to comply with lockdown restrictions.

Father of the bride Muhammad Saleem says he had originally planned to invite more than 600 people to his daughter's marriage. But the coronavirus pandemic has changed this, making ceremonies difficult to organise after the government imposed a strict lockdown to limit the spread of Covid-19.

"Earlier, we had planned to invite more than 600 people, but due to Covid-19 we had to drop it. It is our first marriage in the family. There are several other girls who were waiting for the occasion for a long time, but due to Covid-19 we are not able to invite everyone. The marriage halls were closed until now, the catering businesses are shutdown, the hotels are also not open for business. Even the catering service cannot provide us dinner. We cannot serve dinner to a large gathering so we arranged the gathering in our small home and only a few family members attended the event and later we sent off our daughter," explains Muhammad Saleem, father of the bride.

From March 13, all marriage halls were closed and other public places to follow lockdown orders.

Instead the couple have downsized their gathering, which is taking place at home, with only 40 guests. With many relatives and friends not able to attend, the occasion is broadcast live on social media.

"Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the marriage changed to only be a close family occasion. No friends of mine attended the event, in fact my all friends were not happy with it, and even we are not going for our honeymoon due to travelling restrictions in the country," explains Saleem.

Gathered with close friends and family, the couple cut the wedding cake.

Groom Talha Shariq explains:

"It is also a good aspect. Earlier we had a lot of people. I wish a good number of people would have been able to come to our gathering but unfortunately we could not invite them due to pandemic, and we all missed our event of our whole lifetime."

With marriage halls empty many employees have been out of work.

The government has announced a new countrywide lockdown through to August 17, with only grocery stores and pharmacies allowed to open.

Mosques and churches will also be allowed to stay open, but with social distancing and masks.

The new lockdown follows the Muslim holiday of Eid ul Adha, which ended Monday in Pakistan.

The lockdown was imposed to avoid a spike in cases that occurred in June after Pakistanis celebrated the earlier Muslim holiday of Eid ul Fitr.

In mid-June, Pakistan recorded more than 6,000 new daily cases of the virus. Since then, it has been on a steady decline.

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